Reckless drivers captured on video called up by Traffic Police

SINGAPORE: Traffic Police said they have called up two drivers whose cars were shown overtaking each other dangerously in a YouTube video posted on July 27.

Writing on the Singapore Police Force's Facebook page, Traffic Police said they do not condone "such lawless and inconsiderate road behaviour". Link

In the post, Traffic Police also said that appropriate actions will be taken according to the law.

The video on YouTube shows a black car speeding, cutting in between and overtaking two red cars in a tunnel.

As the cars moved out of the tunnel, one of the red cars appeared to give chase to overtake the black car and neither seemed to be easing up in the apparent race.

New 2-room BTO flats for singles

SINGAPORE: Up to one third of the 519 new 2-room flats on sale under the latest Housing and Development Board (HDB) sales exercise have been set aside for singles. This is the first time singles are able to buy a new flat directly from the government. And with all housing grants added in, the selling price could start from S$16,000.

The 2-room flats are in Sengkang and Yishun. All in, the HDB is offering 4,079 flats in this month's Build-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise. It's a moment 48-year-old Justin Shen has been waiting for. The communications manager is among the first to apply for a 2-room BTO flat as a single. Starting from the July 30 sales exercise, singles aged 35 years and above and earning up to S$5,000 a month can apply for new 2-room flats in non-mature estates.

Magnetic stripe on debit, credit cards to be disabled by Oct 1

SINGAPORE: Consumers planning to use their credit and debit cards when travelling overseas will soon have to activate them first. This is because the magnetic stripe on these cards will be disabled for overseas use by October 1.

While local credit and debit card transactions in Singapore are already being processed using EMV chip technology, the magnetic stripe is still used for card transactions in countries such as the US and South Korea.

Merchants in some countries such as the UK, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia also may not accept cards with EMV chips. This means cardholders travelling overseas will need to activate the magnetic stripe by contacting their banks.

The move is part of the industry's efforts to boost consumers’ protection. Data encoded on magnetic stripe cards is more easily copied than the data on chip cards. Early last year, DBS Bank was hit by card skimming fraudsters who withdrew S$500,000 from its ATMs.

Property cooling measures to remain: Savills

SINGAPORE: Demand for private homes in Singapore has been robust since 2009, pushing home prices to record high. To curb price increase, the government has implemented seven rounds of property market cooling measures since September 2009.

Real estate consultancy Savills said home prices would have gone up by an additional 9.2 per cent in 2012 over 2009 if not for these measures.

Speaking at an industry seminar organised by the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore, Savills said it is unlikely that policy makers would be removing any of the measures anytime soon.

Industry players said the government's intervention has reined in asset price inflation. Private home prices rose just one per cent in the second quarter of this year, on the back of a 16 per cent drop in sales volume.

Singapore ranked second amongst ASEAN countries at the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad 2013

Singapore finished second amongst all ASEAN countries in the Team Category at the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad 2013. Overall, Singapore shared the 15th position with Kyrgyzstan, placing above Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei.

72 teams from 26 countries competed in the Olympiad held at Chongqing, China between 21 Jul and 30 July by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and the Chinese Chess Association.

Five members of the National Junior Squad were selected to represent Singapore in this tournament – Liu Xiangyi, Wong Yee Chit, Lau Xian Hui Rudolph, Tan Tze Lin Tommy, and Lew Zhi Hong.

Full result lists and tournament details can be found on the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad 2013’s Official Website at here. More details are available on this website.

S'pore needs to guard against elitism: ESM Goh

SINGAPORE: Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said there is a need to guard against elitism because it threatens to divide the inclusive society Singapore is seeking to build.

Speaking at his alma mater Raffles Institution's (RI) Homecoming event on Saturday, Mr Goh said top schools, including RI, must play a key role in ensuring elitism and a sense of entitlement do not creep into the minds of their students.

Mr Goh is the second recipient of the Gryphon Award, an honour given to Raffles Institution's most distinguished alumni.

The first Gryphon Award was given to former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in 2011.

Mr Goh spent six years in RI in the 1950s and he recalled it to be a melting pot of Singapore's best male students from different racial and religious backgrounds - whether they were rich or poor.

Latest incidents keep spotlight on Boeing 787

NEW YORK CITY: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane continued to face scrutiny Friday following recent incidents, but the company described them as normal growing pains for a young aircraft.

The aircraft has been under the spotlight since the US Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators grounded the aircraft globally for three months earlier this year due to overheating batteries.

An aviation source told AFP Friday that a 787 operated by Qatar Airways had been grounded in Doha since Monday due to a problem with an electrical panel.

A Qatar Airways spokesman in London said the company "is aware of a very minor incident which has been resolved" and refused to comment further or provide details.

Other media accounts described a fire aboard an Air India 787. Air India rated the episode a "minor incident," according to one report.

US, S'pore armies in war game exercise

All their gazes are fixed on the same electronic battlefield map bursting with military symbols. In their minds, they are busy pondering how best to place and advance their manoeuvre troops and artillery batteries, and where to deploy their reconnaissance teams.

These are decisions that have to be made with razor-sharp precision. A single miscalculation could mean many lives lost, or worse yet, losing the entire battle.

This was a typical scene at the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Wargame Centre in Pasir Laba Camp from 15 to 26 Jul, where soldiers from the Singapore and United States armies were having a command post exercise codenamed Tiger Balm.

This year's edition of the annual brigade-level command post exercise involved about 300 personnel from the 9th Singapore Division's 23rd Singapore Infantry Brigade (23 SIB), and the US Army’s 201st Battlefield Surveillance Brigade (201 BfSB), Hawaii Army National Guard, and US Army Pacific Command. This was the 32nd edition of the exercise since it started in 1981.

Squash: Resurgence of a lost sport

Squash is very much a fairly overlooked sport here. Many still have misconceptions about the game. Squash is a racquet game played between either 2 or 4 players depending on whether it’s a singles or doubles match, where players must take turns to hit the ball against a playable surface on the 4 walls.

The trend of squash has been a real roller-coaster ride. Studies done by the Straits Times in the 2010 showed an increase in bookings of squash courts over a period of time back then. That doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays as many squash courts around Singapore have been replaced by other sports facilities to cater to other types of sports.

“I do think that the sport is on the rise actually, mainly because more youths are taking part in it,” mentioned an optimistic Raymond Tan, Vice President of the Singapore Squash Rackets Association. “The only thing that I would deem as an obstacle is the lack of facilities for squash players to practice, as most of the courts end up being in the private condominiums.”

Yaacob criticises haze rumour-mongers

SINGAPORE: Citing examples such as a prominent blogger who had posted a false rumour and an unknown individual who had doctored a screenshot of the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) reading, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim on Monday criticised the actions of a minority in the online community while praising the efforts of many who had harnessed the internet to help others during the haze crisis.

Dr Yaacob was responding to questions filed by Sembawang GRC Member of Parliament (MP) Vikram Nair, Tampines GRC MP Baey Yam Keng and Nominated MP Tan Su Shan, who asked about the Media Literacy Council’s (MLC) effectiveness as a watchdog and the government’s efforts to ensure Singaporeans receive accurate and timely information during crisis situations, while preventing the spread of false information and hoaxes.

Malaysian Super League champion after 19 years

The LionsXII were crowned Malaysian Super League Champions 2013 final roar last night when they beat relegation threatened Felda United FC.

A 7,650 strong crowd was bursting the seams of the Jalan Besar stadium to witness Singapore’s Under-23 team take home their 13th title with a 4-nil win over the Malaysian side. 

Although starting out as underdogs this season, this has turned out to be the Singapore boys’ best league performance. 

But the confident young team worked their way up to the best table records in the 2013 season as they sat on top of the league for much of the season.

With 11 wins, 7 draws and just 2 losses, the Lions were always going to be the favourites to wrestle the cup from title defenders Kelantan FA, which incidentally are our local heroes’ final opponents of the league.